Lana's Music and Color Synesthesia

[Guest Dot]

Chromesthesia or sound-to-color synesthesia is a type of synesthesia in which heard sounds automatically and involuntarily evoke an experience of color.

 

Does anyone ever feel that way? Whenever I listen to her music many of her songs make me feel the presence of a specific color or blend of multiple colours depending on how they sound, for example:

 

Paradise is probably the one that causes the strongest color perception...

 

 

Ride - It's a blend of really light and soft colours

American - Yellow/Orange/Gold

Cola - Dark Red

Body Electric - Dark/Navy Blue

Blue Velvet - Lavender <- lighter than this

Gods & Monsters - Green

Yayo - Grey/Black

Bel Air - White/Silver/Gold

Burning Desire - Red/Orange

 

People who 'see' or perceive the color as being in the external space are often called projectors, and those that perceive the color in the mind's eye are called associators.

 

From what I've experienced I think I might be an associator. I don't actually see the colors but I somehow percieve them as stated above in the mind's eye. I tend to associate several songs, especially Lana songs, with a specific colour due to the way they sound.

 

Does anyone else feel this way? What colours do you associate Lana's songs with? Are you an associator or a projector?

[Anthem 1,557]

I get this way!

 

I feel like some of it comes from the single/album art and videos though, since I associate those with the songs. I also think this is partly by design from Lana because I remember reading before that she really likes to create a visual picture with her songs. And if she mentions a color just once in the song I automatically associate it or if she talks about an item I think about whatever color that would be too. Its one of the great things about Lana songs really because I get such good visuals in my head. I literally have my own music video in my head for all of her songs because they are so descriptive.

 

Some of the ones I get colors from that don't have covers or a lot of sensory words:

 

FMUTT - pale lavender

Flipside - orange, but only a tiny bit, and blue, but not in a tacky way. I don't know.

Florida Kilos - green and blue

Gramma - dark green

Radio - medium blue

American - very pale blue

Bel Air - white/pale blue

Raise Me Up - dark green, black, dark blue

Hollywood - colors of the sunset, so golds, yellows (but then again she does say sunrise)

* Ultraviolence - same pale lavender as FMUTT, which is odd because the songs are kind of linked. I know I said I wouldn't do ones with videos (don't count Bel-Air) but I got this color from the song way before the video and still do even after one has been released.

[GangstaBoy 3,930]

YES! I somewhat see/feel almost the same color scheme as you! I love associating songs with colours, I always do now that I think of it... This is fascinating

[Mafiosa 1,089]

Cool topic. I do associate many of Lana's songs with colors. It's the atmospheric mood they create that strikes a color connection with me. Not so much the lyrics, more so the sonic aspect of them - maybe the chords/key, certain instruments, an emotion within the song.

 

I don't believe I have synesthesia, though. It's just the visual representation the goes along with the music itself. Sort of a continuation. It's mostly intuitive, though. It's strongly influenced by how the song makes me feel, personally. I doubt this makes any sense, but whatever.

 

(I put my iTunes on shuffle and picked a color for each song)

Burning Desire - Dark Blue

Pretty When You Cry - White

Summertime Sadness - Violet

Without You - Peach

Cola - Yellow or Red

Yayo - Brown

Money Power Glory - Orange and Blue

Diet Mtn. Dew - Mint Green and Silver

Sad Girl - Black and Dark Red

Shades of Cool - Turquoise and Dark Gray

Cruel World - Orange and Gold

American - Pale Blue

Brooklyn Baby - Pink

[Guest Dot]

Cool topic. I do associate many of Lana's songs with colors. It's the atmospheric mood they create that strikes a color connection with me. Not so much the lyrics, more so the sonic aspect of them - maybe the chords/key, certain instruments, an emotion within the song.

 

I don't believe I have synesthesia, though. It's just the visual representation the goes along with the music itself. Sort of a continuation. It's mostly intuitive, though. It's strongly influenced by how the song makes me feel, personally. I doubt this makes any sense, but whatever.

 

(I put my iTunes on shuffle and picked a color for each song)

Burning Desire - Dark Blue

Pretty When You Cry - White

Summertime Sadness - Violet

Without You - Peach

Cola - Yellow or Red

Yayo - Brown

Money Power Glory - Orange and Blue

Diet Mtn. Dew - Mint Green and Silver

Sad Girl - Black and Dark Red

Shades of Cool - Turquoise and Dark Gray

Cruel World - Orange and Gold

American - Pale Blue

Brooklyn Baby - Pink

That makes PERFECT sense! It's exactly what I meant...It's not really the lyrics (or at least not all the time) but the sonic aspect of the music!

Her summery songs always give me this warm feel due to their production as you have already pointed out. I think it's EXACTLY what Lana was going for.

Then there's songs like Video Games, Body Electric, Gods & Monsters, Blue Velvet, Dark Paradise, Yayo and Once Upon a Dream that I associate with cold colors like blue, green, purple, white and grey-black.

[Mafiosa 1,089]

Another thing; I don't really like hearing other people's color connections. It messes with my head. Sometimes it changes my opinion and I don't like that.

[stadiumarcadium 137]

Synesthesia is a funny thing. When I was younger I always wondered why the hell I relate almost random colors to things like songs, letters or weekdays and thought everyone would do that. Sometimes there's not even only colors I see in my head (I'm an associator) but complete settings and feelings, an example for that is Bel Air. It paints pictures in my head and I love songs that do that. Some songs also mix up the color and setting thing. Sadly the whole thing used to be even stronger when I was a child but well.

Let's pick ten random Lana songs. Most of Lana's songs are really dark to me so I try to also think of some brighter ones.

 

American - golden, sunset-ish

Yayo - very dark, almost black

Brooklyn Baby - bright blue/green

Cola - a very dark blue

Gods and Monsters - a mix between golden and black

Body Electric - dark blue

Diet Mountain Dew - gray

Fucked My Way Up To The Top - dark green

Burning Desire - dark red

Video Games - blue

Ultraviolence - dark gray/black

[PinUpCartoonBaby 1,017]

Great topic! I'm connecting almost everything with colours. I think I'm not a projector but maybe an associator. Only when I close my eyes I sometimes "see" coloured spots and shapes but Idk if that counts (I know you can't actually see things with closed eyes but I don't know how to describe it...).

It sounds really stupid but sometimes I see something and for me its colour just doesn't match the object what can even make me feel somehow uncomfortable.    It mostly happens with letters and words. They just have this one specific colour for me, e.g. a simple sans-serif A has to be red.

Like others pointed out above those colours are more than just colours. They usually comprise emotions, pictures, imaginations ect.

Of course music creates colours in my head as well but sometimes the colours change during a song. Though there always remains one dominating or main colour. Many of Lana's songs are some shade of blue for me, especially those on BTD. Paradise has more warm colours. For most of them I feel the same as ULTRAVIOLENCE wrote in the opener post. UV is somehow the darkest album for me when it comes to the colours that appear in my mind.

 

Anyway I'm a bit surprised how many members here associate colours with things, music, whatever as my family and friends never seem to understand me when I tell them about the colours I perceive when hearing or seeing something. Now I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels like that.

[evilentity 13,341]

Me. I Am Synesthesia. #obscure

[Mafiosa 1,089]

Me. I Am Synesthesia. #obscure

The Elusive Neurological Phenomenon.

[lflflflflflflflflflf 3,722]

Synesthesia also has some strange other effects too like assigning genders to things like numbers etc

Anyhow I'll listen to UV and say what colour pops into my head as if it really means anything anyway   I'm imagining colour schemes for videos mostly when I think of this. Or flashes of colour that comes with the lyrics or music.

Lana says UV is a very 'blue album' but Im not really feeling it, I don't know

 

CW - Light brown

UV - Orange, black

SOC - Light blue, pink

BBY - Teal

WC - Orange, gold/yellow

SG - Red, grey

PWYC - Purple

MPG - Dark green

FMWUTTT - Grey, black

OM - White, lilac

TOW - Pink, blue

BB - Dark blue, orange, black

GR - Grey, black, yellow

FL - Blue, white, green

ITH - Lilac, dark purple

F - Grey

[florencewelch 81]

this is surprisingly accurate tbh.

 

also, marina and the diamonds has synesthesia  (✿◠‿◠)

[Thunder Revenant 20,936]

Hm, interesting thing, For some reason, I relate pictures of Lana I've seen to some of her songs, not colours.

 

Like Diet Mountain Dew, American. Off To The Races, Million Dollar Man, Black Beauty, This Is What Makes Ur Girls, Old Money, Pretty When You Cry, Blue Velvet, Body Electric, The Other Woman, Is This Happiness, Flipside, Ultraviolence Cruel World, or Brooklyn Baby

[thatsomason 1,201]

Someone said this before, but album artwork often correlates the colors of the songs on the album. For example, many of the songs on BTD are shades of red, blue, or green, (also white, though thats usually mixed in with the songs, making them lighter or darker in certain tones) which are the primary colors on the album artwork. Paradise does indeed have warmer colored songs, and UV to me is primarily in black and white, or at least very muted, not-very-saturated colors (UV the song is a light yellow, with blotches of pink, Flipside and OM are completely grayscale)

[cinnamon 224]

I feel/get this too, it's very weird but cool lol

 

this is how I interpret some of her songs, I put my phone on shuffle and picked a few of her album songs...

 

Yayo - dark green

Guns and Roses - dark blue/red

Blue Velvet - dark bluish/green

National Anthem - sunset ish colours, blue

Cruel World - black, grey, hints of dark red/blue

Lolita - pale yellow/blue, red

Burning Desire - red/orange

Shades of Cool - blues

Lucky Ones - blues, yellows

Old Money - black and white

[Valentino 884]

Burning Desire: dark red, black.

Gods and monsters: dark gray, silvery

Ride: light brown

Dark Paradise: dark Violet

Diet Mountain Dew: silver

Demo of DMD: gold, brown

trash magic: dark blue

back to the basics: light blue

[ilovetati 15,297]

I do this as well. Or, I'll automatically picture landscapes/city scenes that match the music. It makes the listening experience very beautiful.

[Creyk 11,677]

This is so interesting.

I don't imagine any pictures/colors to the music, I didn't know so many people were actually doing it

[Trash Magic 28,278]

this is so ridiculous, people think they are special or something for having his "condition". It literally takes 1gram of imagination. if you want to "see" a colour you will lol there's nothing wrong with you 

[Filip 37]

yes i have synesthesia, especially with colors and numbers -- colors and days in the week

her sounds always seems so navy blue or beige to me =/

except from diet mountain dew, sounds so lime green